Jason Kidd Believes Effort is the Nets' Issue on Defense

Credit: Gerry Broome/AP

There's no hiding the fact that the Nets have been awful defensively this season. In 11 games, the defense is allowing their opponents to score an average of 101.7 points on 45.7% shooting. Head Coach Jason Kidd doesn't think the defensive scheme is the issue, though. He believes the problem is the players' effort.

“We've played it both ways … we've sat back and played up,” he said. “The effort for us has to be there. It has to be a constant, and it hasn't been. No matter what scheme you go with, you've got to give the effort.”

After starting the season 3-8, the Nets haven't lived up to the hype they received over the offseason, especially on the defensive end. With the addition of Kevin Garnett, it was believed that the defensive intensity would be on another level, but we just have not seen any effort from anyone besides Brook Lopez, who is currently out with a sprained ankle. Lopez is averaging 2.8 blocks per game so far this year.

After the loss to the Charlotte Bobcats on Wednesday, Kidd showed film during his Thursday practice. Shockingly enough, Paul Pierce wasn't impressed.

“We watched a lot of really brutal tape today,” Pierce said before the Nets flew to Minnesota for tonight's game with the Timberwolves. 

Steve Clifford, the Bobcats' Head Coach, saw a lot from the Brooklyn defense, and said that his team was able to get to the paint so easily because of the way the Nets were pushing their bigs up to blow up pick-and-rolls and denying on the wings to try and create turnovers. In other words, the Nets are doing too much to try and steal the ball instead of playing straight up defense.

With Lawrence Frank hired to be the defensive mastermind of this Nets team, it's up to him and Jason Kidd to make the team put in effort. If the Swiss cheese-like defense continues, the Nets are in deep trouble. 

Source: New York Post
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